I will write this now while he's still alive, lest I be tempted to do so when the timing is inappropriate. President Duterte is clearly no longer fit for office. It is plain to see he is physically unfit, emotionally dysregulated, and occasionally displays bothersome inconsistent decision making statements - as an apparent indication of rapid senescence.
He himself admits that he is heavily medicated, and again - it is plain to see he isn't at his sharpest. At some point, I am quite sure he was - but senescence is real, and our developing country under a pandemic cannot afford to be led by someone senescent. This is not ageist, this is plain assessment. There is enough public record proof. This is truth.
It might be a stretch to try to disagree with me on this- but I almost half-want to see someone try.
Am I missing something here? Perhaps some of you see a robust side of the President the rest of us don't see? Or do you merely see how Duterte being still Head of State benefits you somehow. I can wrap my head around that, that there is aggressive almost fanatic support 'til now because there are benefits for you and your business to do so, safety, too perhaps, I totally get it. For you, that is survival- or greed, whichever.
What I cannot wrap my head around is the idea that you all consider him "the best" "highly reasonable" "a sharp strategist" "wise" "brave" "compassionate," and any other high praise tossed his way like fan confetti even as he joked about necrocentric rape.
I want to understand. Anyone? Tell me what you see that I don't.
Look, I do not wish Duterte ill, nor bad health - he already has admitted to possessing both - I have, in fact, been posting this out of concern for Duterte's subsequent health, as he really should be enjoying his old age without the stress that comes with polarizing a nation, making large less than prudent fiscal decisions, making policy directives outside due process based on macho mood swings and whims. This is not the leadership he promised us when he campaigned.
We should not be run by people we did not elect as Executives. If we are to be truly democratic, we need to stake our claim that we choose our leaders on the assumption that they are of sound mind and sound body. This isn't political, this is truth.
This is grief talking, not over the loss of my friend, also a former President, today, but by the loss of our fight. This disintegration of leadership capacity, plain etiquette, and the decline of his former steadfastness has been going on since Duterte stepped into office.
I remember clearly, the days before he was about to take his oath, he said "by July 1 mag behave na ako." Duterte is self-aware. Even he knows this. He periodically says he is tired, he threatens to resign when a promise isn't met, and those have been many and these flippant declarations are not even done in secret and he obviously has not. His words rarely hold water, how can a good President be such?
I say this with utmost respect while the President is still alive, because when humans die, I think it is just right that moments of silence are observed. When Duterte dies, I assure you of my reverent silence. But while he makes decisions on my behalf as a citizen, I will be heard.
This is what I believe in based on what I've seen.
I could have used harsher terms but I realized I don't need to - the truth and his behaviour says it so clearly for me. We only need to listen. We only need to watch him at the podium, we only need to observe his gait. This is science. Google the association between various brain pathologies and gait disturbance. Even President Noynoy Aquino had a particular shuffle in his gait- this is explained clearly by a bullet he sustained in late 1987 during an ambush on him by the gates of Malacañan during a coup where he lost his security and met with unfriendly fire as he was going home from our common friend's home.
I'm not even angry tonight, I'm just so raw and had the need to say what's on my mind before I sleep and prepare for the reality of a week worth of wakes of friends.
It's been a long day, I allowed myself to go here today - typing through gritted teeth, saying my truth plainly for this is all I have on this long grey day.
Gang Badoy Capati
1111pm THU
24 June 2021
Pic: That's me meeting then-Mayor Rodrigo Duterte accidentally in the Davao airport as I told him about the formerly active Team Rock Ed Davao, 2014. We accomplished a lot in Davao because we had the Mayor's support. Thank you for the picture - Sheila and or Charmaine.